


a little bird, an empty cage

by kyrilu



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Dreams, Missing Scene, Multi, Pre-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 12:41:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1070572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/kyrilu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Season 2.</p><p>Oliver dreams, and draws his own conclusions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a little bird, an empty cage

They return for him. Of course they do. Slade has a cigarette burning in his mouth, and Shado looks at him with a smile like the sea, sad and cool and joyful.

“Olly olly oxen free,” she calls to him, and he nearly freezes in place. It’s their codeword in the island forest, while they were hunting and gathering-- _where are you, Oliver?_

And Oliver would emerge from the thick undergrowth with a rueful smile, and say, _I’m here._

Now he steps out of the rooftop’s shadows. He finds himself half-bathed in the moonlight; it’s a full moon, and it splits him nearly three quarters down the middle. Three quarters light, one quarter dark. Oliver stands there, and _stares_ at them.

Beautiful Shado, dressed in jet black, her eyes dark, her body familiar with its shape of lean muscle and curve. And Slade, whose face is somehow unmarred. Oliver has never seen his posture so relaxed before--it’s like the soldier stiffness is gone, and the man Slade Wilson remains.

“Look at you,” Shado says softly. “My hood.”

“I kept it safe for you,” Oliver says. He slips it off, holds it out to her. “It’s my reminder of Lian Yu. Of everything we went through.”

She shakes her head. “That’s true. But you also put it on for your father, Oliver. I wore it for my father as well. Keep it.”

Shado touches her hand against his before pulling away.

“That’s our Ollie,” Slade says, speaking for the first time. His voice is just how Oliver’s always remembered it. The accent’s there, gruff and warm. One of his hands extend to the city below, his cigarette wafting grey over the darkened buildings. The cigarette tip is a glow of orange, pulsing like a firefly. “Going from one war to another. Wearing that ridiculous crap, but still…”

Slade gestures to Oliver’s costume, at the painted-on mask.

“I’m the Vigilante,” Oliver says. “I need a signature look. Make an impression on people.”

Then Oliver turns his eyes down, at Starling City all around. He sees how a part of it has crumbled within itself. Five hundred and three. Tommy. He’s failed his city.

This is a dream.

“I can’t do this,” he whispers. “I wish that you both came back with me.”

“Me, too, kid,” Slade says, and he drops his cigarette, crushing it with one of his shoes. “You look fierce _._ You know that, right?”

And time passes over him--his body burns, and he’s gone. Just a vision. Just a piece of the past.

Before Oliver can blink, Shado’s gone, too. He can hear her echo the word _fierce_ as well, wry and proud, but they’re wrong. They’re wrong.

When he wakes up, he knows he’s going home.

Lian Yu. Back to Purgatory. Away from Starling City and his mistakes.

If he tries hard enough, he thinks he can hear Shado calling for him: _olly olly oxen free._ If he tries hard enough, he can hear himself say, _I’m here_ , rustling through the trees, walking into sunlight _._ And then he’ll hear Slade saying, _Stupid kid, don’t tell me you got lost again._


End file.
